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Capture Your Competitors' Customers - Even When The Boss Says It Can't Be Done
As a Sales Manager, you often hear your President and other Senior staff members try to bolster the sales staff with confidence that you can win any job. On the other hand, have you ever had the President of your company tell you that there is "NO WAY" that your company could win a major project with seven other major approved suppliers from your industry?

Reduce Employee Turnover Costs
There are many statistics and complex methodologies to support the notion that employee turnover costs are seriously affecting mid-sized enterprises. On the low end, the Hay Group reports that the cost to replace an employee is 50% of their total compensation, including benefits. On the high-end, Hewitt & Associates puts the cost between 100-150% of annual compensation. While executive management and sales staff are more costly to replace, churn in any function affects the bottom-line.
Fall into the Gap
Today, I visited a Gap store for the first time in a while. We all know that they've been having trouble, and it was interesting to see how they're responding.
Competing motivations creating confusion
How to incentivise and reward sales people has long been a contentious topic. Too many times I have seen businesses set up incentive programs that reward the wrong behaviours which can affect team morale, client relationships, sales, staff retention, and so on. For instance, I recently met the managing director of a medium sized software business who asked me why would his sales people keep selling one version of their product when they had been instructed to also sell in a newer more comprehensive version of the product.
Business Ideas for Beginners – Outsourced Sales & Marketing
An article looking at the benefits of outsourcing sales & marketing.
Who’s in charge of your sales recruitment?
1. How much is a good sales person worth to you? 2. How much is a good hiring manager worth to you? Speaking about recruitment in these current economic times may seem foolish, however in the area of selling, this is where you could make great strides by picking up highly effective sales people who have found themselves on the job market or are looking for a better business to work in. I know of a few highly competent sales people and sales managers who have been let go along with other staff as part of large staff reduction strategies. In my opinion, the last people I would let go in this market would be highly competent and high producing sales people. Which leads me to the contentious issue about who makes the decisions to hire and fire sales people. In particular, who hires sales people.
Can Cold Calling Kill your Company?
Years of practice have led to everyone having Caller ID and highly effective spam filters; "attraction marketing" is a more viable long-term solution for lead generation.
Sales Staff Motivation
An article on how important recognition and praise is to staff motivation.
360 Degree Appraisals
An overview on the 360 Degree Appraisals
Making the most of Up Selling & Cross Selling
Do you sell one thing and one thing only? Probably not. I suspect your business has a range of things it can offer. And I suspect that many of these things can be integrated together to make an end-to-end solution or various combinations that lead to much larger sales. If this is the case, then how well are you selling in the size and scope of your business offerings? Too many times sales people get fixated on the immediate sale in front of them not really seeing the potential of that sale now or into the future. If they would only ask the right questions and get a bigger perspective to work from they might get more and bigger sales for less effort.
Costing cutting at the expense of sales? Bad move
I don't know about you, but when markets start to tighten or when things feel a bit uncertain, instead of cost cutting and bunkering down, I have found that you need to do precisely the opposite. You need to invest in your sales efforts with good strategy, sales training, good sales management and good sales coaching.
Motivation or manipulation?
What is the line between motivating sales staff and manipulating sales staff? How do you make sure you don't go over the line and place people under extreme pressure to achieve? Research both here and overseas shows that high performing sales people identified how important it was to their performance that they remain motivated, which they recognised can be influenced by both internal and external factors, with a sense of self satisfaction found to be the most important contributor to their motivation. Management need to act as true mentors and motivators for their staff, especially in sales call centres as this is, or can be,
What impact does attending a sales training program have on change?
What impact does attending a sales training program have on change? It all depends on what type of training format your sales people attend. Too many companies look for quick fixes and waste heaps of money in the process.
The trouble with sales training
What impact does attending a sales training program have on change? It all depends on what type of training format your sales people attend. Too many companies look for quick fixes and waste heaps of money in the process.
Are you creating competing motivations in your sales force?
I recently met the managing director of a medium-sized software business, who asked me why would his sales people keep selling one version of their product when they had been instructed to also sell in a newer, more comprehensive version of the product. It turned out that his sales people earned more commission by selling in the older version than the newer version of his product. And the sales people made the bulk of their income from their commissions rather than from their salaries. There you have it. What makes perfect sense to the sales person does not always work for the organisation or the customer.
The Top 10 Common Pricing Mistakes Most Companies Make
Price strategy is emerging as the most important resource for companies to increase their competitive advantage. The vast majority of companies have spent years achieving gains through cost cutting, outsourcing, process re-engineering and the adoption of innovative technologies. However, the incremental benefits from these important activities are diminishing, and companies need to look at other areas to improve their business results. Savvy companies are implementing price optimization schemes and focusing on building their organization to serve their most profitable customers.

You are nothing without Credibility as an Internet Marketer
Who do you listen to and believe? How does somebody earn your respect and trust? At what stage will you find them so credible that you will take their advice?
How to choose a publicist
The best way to gain good publicity for your small business is to hire a good publicist. To help you choose a publicist, you need a checklist to assess the qualifications and experience of the publicist.

8 Ps of Hardcodre Selling
Following the 8 P's of hardcore selling, you'll definitely boost your sales and build a great customer relationship
Sales Training Courses that Bring Lead Generations to Life
Sales training can turn your stale sales force into lead generation experts. Developing leads in today's challenging business economy is harder than ever, but it is no excuse for becoming lackadaisical in generating leads. Advanced sales training courses can reinvigorate your sales team to generate new sales leads at an unprecedented rate for your team.

Sales Training for the Fiery Edge on your Competitors
Your company’s rival could be investing in sales training for their sales staff while your sales staff sits complacently at their office desks, perhaps reaching sales goals but never exceeding them. Not investing in sales training gives your competitors another edge that maybe you can’t afford to lose.

The Retail Jungle…where visions become real! (Part 3)
Packaging / promotional plan/ unique selling proposition more information to think about when launching a new product!

Ad battling in a crisis
It's a financial crisis, and it's tempting to sacrifice ads when you don't have the cash. Here's a few pointers on how you can get the most for your money.
Violence in Shoplifting
You will often hear the term “Shoplifting is a Victimless Crime”, this certainly is not necessarily always the case. With the rise in shoplifting there has become an increase in violence towards retailers and their employees. In some cases these are verbal assaults but in a growing number of cases it has become physical. Retailers need to recognize a potential danger to personal safety and take the appropriate action.

Some Inexpensive Business Ideas For The New Entrepreneur
So you want to start your own business – you are a new entrepreneur so to speak. Maybe you have just become unemployed and are trying to start a business from scratch or you’ve just got the yen to start a new business. In these recessionary times starting capital is going to be tight. So how do you start a new business without spending too much of your hard earned money?
Time Management Sales Effectiveness
How to Improve on Time Management Sales Effectiveness
What Salespeople Can Learn from a Focus on the Chase instead of the Hammer
What is possible if salespeople began to think of the sales process like the noted automobile restorer Wayne Carini? Just how is the sales process in the top performer’s way like the chase for the finest classic cars?
Increase Sales by Identifying Your Target Market and Stop Spraying and Praying Your Sales Activities
Do you feel that you are not getting your fair share of the market place? If so, then can you answer exactly how big of a piece of the pie is that fair share? Now is the time to rethink and refocus so that you accurately know your target market.
Catalog Design - Using Product Placement and Page Layout to Maximize Sales and Catalog ROI
A catalog is a highly specialized marketing collateral piece that, when designed and produced correctly, will drive customers to complete their purchase with your company over other alternatives. By presenting a tempting display of appealing products in a clear, carefully considered fashion, your catalog can become one of the most powerful calls to action in your sales arsenal - particularly when paired with a niche marketing strategy.
The Pluses And Minuses Of Watching One Of The Best
My tip for all leaders of sales staffs is to let your people watch someone that is mortal. Someone that is going to miss and stumble a little but most importantly has a lot of fun and a great attitude when approaching their job.
UK Sales Coaching For Sales Managers - A 60 second tool
A fantastic 60 second uk sales coaching tool for sales managers and sales people. This will increase your sales force effectiveness and make you a better sales coach.
Middle-aged consumers & luxury consumption
For every youthful consumer there is a middle-aged one with more money (and more credit) to spend who would rather like to be noticed too. How does this consumer segment consume luxury goods? What do they associate with? Using the examples of present communication strategies adopted by luxury product marketers and an empirical study, this article argues how they are missing an opportunity and provides managers with a novel way to market their luxury brands, focusing on how middle-aged consumers associate themselves with these brands.
Sales People spending less than 10% of their time SELLING
I got talking to a senior salesperson recently and was gob smacked when he told me about the amount of admin work that he is expected to produce on top of his sales target. He was literally spending half his working week doing paperwork.It got me to thinking that when you consider other unavoidable tasks such as travelling to and from sales meetings , the amount of time that he could possibly be spending in front of prospective clients actually selling must be tiny.
An open letter to my competition
A letter from the aggressive seller in the market, who is taking your customer’s away from you.
Is Your Business a Front-runner?
Creativity in marketing is crucial if you want to join the ranks of the front-runners. • A front-runner business constantly improves its selling skills and techniques. • A front-runner business is the customer’s first choice. • A front-runner business is designed to make a profit.
A Luxury Once Had Becomes A Necessity
Two techniques to turn a luxury into a necessity in the buyers mind. A luxury an item that is desirable but not essential. a product or service that gives great pleasure.

Selling from Good to Great
Here’s what you can do to take your selling from good to great!
The "Cold Call Presentations" Myth
Sales professionals, new to selling or business development, might view the opportunity to make a presentation on the spot as a positive event, especially when they learn how hard it is to set a steady stream of appointments to make their presentation. But this perceived opportunity is far from the best time to make a sales presentation, because they rarely can command a decision-maker's full attention.

The "Use Seasoned Sales Professionals As Trainers" Myth
In some selling organizations, if formal sales training exists at all, it is often performed by seasoned sales representatives or top performers on the staff. Big mistake!

The "Never Play Favorites" Myth
Many year's ago, while training at a branch of Dean Whitter (now Morgan Stanley), I learned an important management truth. The branch manager at this office was mandated by corporate to spend a minimum of 60 percent of his time working with and supporting the stock brokers who had been given offices (based on their top performance) surrounding the "bull pen," where the vast majority of the brokers had cubicles. Those staff members in the cubicles were allocated 40 percent of the manager's time.
Lead Change With A Leadership Network
If you want to sponsor a lasting change, search out the people who will be visible leading learners — people to cooperate in the work of creating a new vision and living out the changes in their behaviors. We’ve come to call this virtual group a change leadership network, a critical mass of natural leaders aligned with the new future. These people will be the front-runners in understanding the implications of the change for their organizations and thinking through how their work systems will need to be impacted. Your changeleadership challenge is to form and nurture this phenomenon.

Increasing Sales – A Manager's Dilemma
How do you motivate sales people who don't seem to want to be motivated? In this article you will learn what works better than either the carrot or the stick. Includes a sidebar that offers secrets to motivating sales people.
To Increase Sales Means You Must Map Your Icebergs
Are trying to increase sales? How much of your sales are you missing? Maybe it is time to map all of your icebergs.
Top 7 Questions to Increase Sales Using The 80/20 Rule
Are you aware of the Pareto Principle? Do you know how you can incorporate this mathematical into your business to increase sales?

Common Time Wasters of Sales Professionals
Sometimes it’s procrastination that steals the dollars out of your pocket, but sometimes it’s a false perception of what works. Here are some common time wasters, and a testing tool to make sure you don’t get caught out spending your precious time fruitlessly ever again.
Ten Strategic Actions To Improve Sales Staff Productivity
How effective is your sales staff? Are they a high performance team, a mediocre performance team or a woefully “underachieving” and blatantly poor performance team? If you have mediocre, underachieving or poor sales people, what are you doing to change that? If your sales staff is not effective, not performing to its potential and is in need of improved performance, Your Strategic Thinking Business Coach offers ten (10) strategic actions to take to change that.

Other sales staff Related Articles

Mistakes Made by New or Inexperienced Sales Staff
Why is it ‘senior’ sales staff are more effective and more productive in their sales efforts? Could it be that they've learned the value of these simple points that help them sell better? Canadian Sales Trainer, Bob 'Idea Man' Hooey outlines 7 mistakes made my inexperienced sales staff. Make more sales by making less mistakes.

Sales Training Tip – How To Retain Top Sales People
Keeping your sales staff is a tough job as there doesn’t seem to be any loyalty any more. Read this article for tips on how to retain your best sales staff!
Stellar Supervision Enhances Company Productivity
Looking for a framework to use to provide stellar supervision for each of your staff members? Proactive, collaborative supervision is a key to enhancing each staff member's competencies, commitment and optimum personal productivity. It enhances staff loyalty and reduces turnover because staff members feel their career success is a top priority of their leader. Read on to discover the things you can do to help your staff members excel.
Don't go through the motions.
Do you dread reviewing the sales numbers with your sales staff? Are you comfortable bringing up unpleasant, but real, sales challenges with your staff? If you want to learn an alternative approach that yields greater results read this attached article from Sandler Training.
Sales Training for Entry Level Sales Representatives
Sales training for entry level sales representatives will refine the basic sales techniques of your entry level sales staff and advance their sales skills with the growing interest of the company. Sales training for sales reps can get your sales team on the same page and focused to obtain the strategic sales goals of the company.

Sales Training for the Fiery Edge on your Competitors
Your company’s rival could be investing in sales training for their sales staff while your sales staff sits complacently at their office desks, perhaps reaching sales goals but never exceeding them. Not investing in sales training gives your competitors another edge that maybe you can’t afford to lose.

Five Ways to Test Your Sales Messaging for Greatness
What grade would you give yourself on the quality and effectiveness of the sales support messaging and materials you prepare for your staff? Not an “A+”? Don’t feel bad, you’re hardly alone. According to a recent poll that appeared in BtoB magazine, some 70% of the marketeers polled gave themselves “D’s” and “F’s”. This article gives sales and marketing executives and their staff a sure-fire way to doublecheck that their sales messaging is working to maximum effect, and, if not, ways to improve it.
Motivation or manipulation?
What is the line between motivating sales staff and manipulating sales staff? How do you make sure you don't go over the line and place people under extreme pressure to achieve? Research both here and overseas shows that high performing sales people identified how important it was to their performance that they remain motivated, which they recognised can be influenced by both internal and external factors, with a sense of self satisfaction found to be the most important contributor to their motivation. Management need to act as true mentors and motivators for their staff, especially in sales call centres as this is, or can be,
Who’s in charge of your sales recruitment?
1. How much is a good sales person worth to you? 2. How much is a good hiring manager worth to you? Speaking about recruitment in these current economic times may seem foolish, however in the area of selling, this is where you could make great strides by picking up highly effective sales people who have found themselves on the job market or are looking for a better business to work in. I know of a few highly competent sales people and sales managers who have been let go along with other staff as part of large staff reduction strategies. In my opinion, the last people I would let go in this market would be highly competent and high producing sales people. Which leads me to the contentious issue about who makes the decisions to hire and fire sales people. In particular, who hires sales people.
Capture Your Competitors' Customers - Even When The Boss Says It Can't Be Done
As a Sales Manager, you often hear your President and other Senior staff members try to bolster the sales staff with confidence that you can win any job. On the other hand, have you ever had the President of your company tell you that there is "NO WAY" that your company could win a major project with seven other major approved suppliers from your industry?

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